womens magazine 'shock' stories are they really real ?

[romeolovedjulliet]

such thrilling titles like 'he shagged my mum then killed our neighbour' 'he raped me, i had quads but i love him' and such rubbish. the mags really have gone down the last upteen years judging by the titles. if this shit was written on here ifwould get deleted as troll fodder.
aibu to think this way ?

I assume the stories are heavily edited to give a particular slant and I’m uncomfortable with how vulnerable people are portrayed, particularly when they are given such paltry amounts of money for their humiliation.

Takeashite however is hilarious. twitter.com/TakeAShite

Some of it is an exaggeration of the truth or almost complete bollocks. My mother used to “sell” stories to these types of magazine when I was a kid in the 90s. She made a small living out of it. Some stories had an element of truth but loads were almost completely untrue, or such an exaggeration of the truth that they were unrecognisable. They eventually stopped paying/ buying stories off her when they realised she was a con woman. Take them with a pinch of salt.

I have a friend who "sold a story". They often poach stories from other things online eg trawl facebook groups, forums etc and message people for their stories. The cleaning facebook pages im part of often have stories directly lifted from them (without the posters consent occasionally) and run as little filler pieces for the sun or mirror.

My friend sold her story several years ago to one, and it still pops up as the magazine group has used it in all their magazines and just randomly put it in every couple of years.

Her wasnt massively sensational, but they emphasized some really odd bits, and the photos are massively staged eg hers is about the size of something so the comparison pictures are all forced perspective, and using things like smaller adults, small items to make it look bigger!

I think the headlines are written to grab your attention.

I saw one once ‘Wild sex cost me my leg’ (she had sex then later had an unrelated accident in her home but her partner was unable to help her as he was still sleeping after the sex).

Also, ‘Your iPod could kill you’ (if you are using it stood under a pylon during a lightning storm!)

Internet pranksters often try and get in The tips and tricks bit, and theres whole facebook pages full of people showing the fake/ weird tricks they sent in and managed to get paid for

I remember reading one where a woman said she had a stroke while she was having an orgasm and that she didn't find it an unpleasant experience. The mind boggles !! Well hers did.

This morning seems to have some on screen rejects of take a break style wannabes (usually not involving sex) They had a woman once who talked to trees, one that told fortunes or made predictions using asparagus, and a woman that apparently married her duvet
I dont watch This Morning very often and these type of stories made me realise why!
I love the Take a Shite Twitter page. I'm sure lots of people (the same ones) just send in crap for a laugh.the same names seem to appear quite regularly!

Some relatives got caught up in a nightmare situation, and the National press got wind of it. Relatives decided to say nothing but their classy neighbours (who used the nick-names “arsehole” and “buttwipe” to call in their kids for their tea), gave local and national press their details including where they worked, so they were bombarded by the likes of the Sun calling them at work, and the local radio station yammering on about the story all day long for weeks.

Neighbours also sold the story to “take a shake” making the story about how they had suffered, while in reality it was my relatives who had suffered and neighbours had made it worse for them. She was done up like a dog’s dinner in the photos and looked 10 years older than the age she gave. Relatives also found out what the kids real names were!

We (myself & DM) sold a story to a women's magazine about my abusive father.

I was at Uni at time and the money came in handy. The way I looked at it was that I'd never had a penny off my father and £500 (20 years ago) was a small recompense for a shit thing.

I used to work with a man who was in one of those magazines. His girlfriend wrote about how he used to beat her up which was awful, and they split up and got back together a few times before she called it off completely, good for her. However, there was the infamous 'TIME PASSED' in the story, which is when he got sacked from our workplace for stealing and vandalising and she used to ring up all the time, at least 10, 20 times a day, playing music full blast down the phone, singing a particular hit song at the top of her voice or shrieking with laughter with him laughing along too in the background. Lasted a few weeks iirc until they must have got bored or realised the phone bill was too much.

Some of the stories are comedy gold. I think it's the oddly old fashioned romantic sheen they try to put on them.

E.g.,On my first day working in McDonald's, my eyes locked with a handsome colleague, I couldn't ignore it, he made me weak at the knees. (See blurry picture of Dave, a spotty youth scowling in a baseball cap)

We went for a drink after work and sparks flew, we couldn't deny our feelings and tumbled into bed for a night of passion (we got pissed and I took him back to my mum's house for a shag).

In time (in a matter of weeks) he had moved in, I was pregnant and the wedding was planned. Then I was devastated and betrayed when I found out he started sleeping with a new girl at work. The story is always called "Love rat in the kitchen!!" or similar.

It nearly always ends with the woman pictured with a new fiancee she met a week later with the caption "moving on".

I love this one ...

These men that the women fall for always sound horrible! It's sad so many get hooked up on such people.
There are horrible women too of course, but mostly I ones I read about were the men.
They seemed to get into relationships or have babies with them within months too. You need longer than this to work out what they are like I think although I guess a lot of these stories are made up anyway.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll MissPiggee.

The agony uncle was David Hale. The last time I bought Take A Break fell on me at an open page from a shelf in a shop, he had been replaced by Katie and Friends. The friends take opposing positions on the solution to the reader's problem. Not sure if they would manage to find anyone supporting staying with the Bird Man of TAB though.

My favourite “tightwad” tip which featured in take a break: If you need a clutch bag in an emergency, just put your lippy, car keys and tampon into a pita bread".

They helpfully add "remembering to always hold it up the right way" because, obviously, a pitta bread doesn't have a zip or a popper on it.

@SmileyClare

Your pastiche is brilliant
Exactly how they are.

These magazines are very fresh in my mind because I was in hospital for a week a month or so ago.
I wasn't expecting to be admitted so I hadn't taken anything to read. I asked one of the nurses if there were any magazines anywhere and she very kindly came back with an armful of "TAB" (as I call it, being so familiar with it now) and similar others.

I read them - it was that or go mad with boredom - but, to quote Phoebe: "My eyes! MY EYES!".

I agree 80s I find it baffling and quite sad really when you read all the stories about women with three children, they've been married, got divorced and are expecting their fourth child with a new partner and then you get to the bottom and realise they're 23 years old!

I knew someone who was 'Dear Deidre' for The Sun, her along with a few others. Their stories are true as in someone has actually written in with the issue (not sure if it's made up by the person who had written in) so it wouldn't surprise me if they were in womens magazines.

They're oddly addictive aren't they LaMarschallin? My sister in law passes on her old copies to me so that's my excuse!

I admit I turn over the stories on child abuse without reading them. Some are awful.

These magazines are very fresh in my mind because I was in hospital for a week a month or so ago.
I wasn't expecting to be admitted so I hadn't taken anything to read. I asked one of the nurses if there were any magazines anywhere and she very kindly came back with an armful of "TAB" (as I call it, being so familiar with it now) and similar others.

Why is this sort of shit always in drs/dentists waiting rooms? I suppose they dont have to be up to date like fashion magazines.
....I wonder if sales will go down now hairdressers /dentists etc wont be able to supply magazines...?

Also the infamous pita bread clutch bag must surely be a wind up! Someone dared to see what type of crap tip they would pay £25 for!!

They are genuine yes. I know a journalist who used to write these features as a freelancer for the likes of Take a Break. She was never short of people willing to share their sordid stories and the weirdest part is that the magazines generally didn't even pay the subjects and they didn't mind - they just wanted to tell their story and see themselves in print.

I wouldn't class them as 'thrilling'

Abuse, domestic violence, behaviour that shocks is real in society.... there are some very odd/abusive/sick etc people out there

MotherMorph

Why is this sort of shit always in drs/dentists waiting rooms? I suppose they dont have to be up to date like fashion magazines.

Funnily enough, up until quite recently, I
hadn't come across them before in waiting rooms.

At a private dentist I used to go to, the dentist told me they had an order with a company that supplied magazines for waiting room purposes. They'd chosen "Good Housekeeping", "Glamour" and "Delicious" (for her) and three car magazines (no idea...) for the male dentist. They read them then took them in for the waiting room.
My NHS dentist just has leaflets describing what treatments you aren't allowed on the NHS and other leaflets on how to join a private dental plan.

When I was married to a GP, I used to pass on my magazines (your usual "glossies"), after reading, for the surgery.*
Our local GP tended to have local newspapers (presumably for local people) and the occasional magazine brought in by the receptionists.

But you're right. Nowadays, it seems, NHS waiting rooms have nothing to read or it's piles of "TABS" and similar.

What happened to the "Reader's Digest"?

*One of the reasons he's an ex is because he spent time going checking the prices of the four magazines I sent in each month for the waiting room, and complained how much money I was spending.

I remember years ago the mall in town had a small fountain inside.
Someone had sent a story to Take a break that was absolutely ridiculous and there was a picture if the woman sat near the fountain looking sadly the water display.

I cant for the life of me remember the story!!

Waiting rooms do seem to supply fewer magazines these days, I suppose they think most people will have a phone. I do miss them though.